Sisters who say Taylor Swift helped them grieve their mom prepare for heartfelt Eras Tour

The Joy sisters can’t wait to shimmy, shake and dance in New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome with thousands of Swifties this weekend. And not only because they are huge fans of Taylor Swift, but because the singer has helped them process the grief of losing their mother to brain cancer.

“Our mom introduced my sister to Taylor Swift,” Chloe Joy Sexton says from Memphis, Tennessee, over Zoom. “It wasn’t even me. It was her. She loved Taylor Swift and probably around 2012, 2013 said something to me that I will never forget: ‘I don’t think people understand what a big deal Taylor is and what a difference she’s going to make in the world.'”

For Joy Sexton, that difference came in 2022 when her mom, Jennifer Joy, died of brain cancer. The 30-year-old cookie business owner and TikTok influencer has shared her journey in vulnerable videos the past two years. She became the guardian of her sister, Charlotte Joy, who is 20 years younger. She showcased ornate boxes her mom used to hold memories and mementos.

“My mom was so crafty,” she says. “She taught me how to sew, how to scrapbook, how to decoupage, how to embroider, how to make jewelry.”

An anonymous follower reached out to Joy Sexton after seeing her story and said they had been to the Eras Tour several times. They were going to transfer two tickets for Joy Sexton and Charlotte to attend the New Orleans show.

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“The person said, ‘I think you deserve to go. I want your sister more than anything to go,'” Joy Sexton says.

The big sister constructed five boxes, similar to how their mom would, for five of Swift’s eras: “Lover,” “Fearless,” “1989,” “Speak Now” and “The Tortured Poets Department.”

“It took me months to put together,” Joy Sexton says before joking that five eras was the limit. “There’s no way I could have done 11 boxes.”

Once the Mod Podge dried, she placed each box, era-by-era, into a bigger box like Russian dolls. Joy Sexton waited for the right time to tell her sister.

“If there’s one thing our mom celebrated it was big milestones,” Joy Sexton says. “Charlotte’s never been in a sport. I have never seen her challenge herself more than when she did cross country.”

Charlotte entered a regional meet to run one mile. The determined elementary student pushed herself until the end.

“She came in very last, and that was very tough on her,” Joy Sexton says. “She wasn’t feeling well in the beginning of going into it but she insisted on going. She wanted to prove she could do it.”

The school principal, parents of other students who finished and Joy Sexton rallied around the finish line as Charlotte crossed at 17:45.

“I knew in that moment because I needed her to know how proud of her I was,” Joy Sexton says. She put her phone on the floor of Charlotte’s bedroom the night of the race to record a video of the Swiftie opening each box. At the end, Charlotte reads a note from Joy Sexton: “Since losing mommy you’ve grown into an incredible, strong girl who finds light in the darkest places. I can’t wait to make the whole place shimmer with you.” As Charlotte realizes she’s going to the show, she tears up and hugs Joy Sexton in a beautiful moment.

“I believe there’s being a fan and then there’s having somebody who has no idea you exist become such an integral part of your life,” Joy Sexton says. Although Charlotte is in the age of innocence, she had to learn resiliency while watching her mom fight through radiation and chemo appointments until surgery and treatment were no longer options.

“Charlotte is already so much stronger than most adults I know,” Joy Sexton says, “and not in a callous way but a very soft, calm, mature way. I don’t want her to ever lose that girlhood and that love and pride for feminism. Everything that makes us girls.”

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The impenetrable bond between Joy Sexton and Charlotte solidified through Swift’s diaristic lyrics, how the singer has normalized heartbreak — and all kinds of heartbreak including losing a loved one.

“Taylor has a superpower,” Joy Sexton says. “She’s the most famous person on the planet. But none of that is as important to me as knowing that she’s a woman who has brought — through song — themes of grief and girlhood and joy all together. She’s made it normal.”

And even though their mom won’t be making an Eras Tour memory box or going to the three-and-a-half-hour show, Joy Sexton knows she’ll be there in spirit, dancing headfirst fearless.